Welcome to the Australian Open, brought to you by Roger Federer. It doesn’t quite say that on the ticket but it might given his role in the global projection of the event.
It was a year ago in Australia that the Roger resurrection began, winning his 18th grand slam title, the first for five years, out of nowhere at the age of 35. This year appears to be a celebration of that, the organisers taking every opportunity to play the Federer card at a tournament that can sometimes feel like the fourth wheel in the tennis firmament.
Geographically and temporally the Australian Open is out on a limb. Coming four months after the final major of the year and five before the next, the season opener often struggles for traction alongside the French, Wimbledon and the US Open. So why wouldn’t you make the most of the greatest tennis story ever told?
On the Saturday preceding this event the media attended 13 press conferences. On Sunday there was just one. The decks were swept clean for Federer. The same brand focus was in play after his first round win against ex-convenient Brit, Aljaz Bedene. Federer was given the Hollywood treatment via the auspices of Will Ferrell, who in a faux on-court interview asked him if he were a vampire such are his eternal qualities.
Of course Federer justifies the fanfare. He arrived in Melbourne 12 months ago having not hit a ball for five months to allow a knee - on which he had surgery the previous February - to heal. After three straightforward wins in which he dropped only one set Federer found himself 5-0 down in the first set of his fourth round tie against Kei Nishikori.
This at least met with conventional ideas of what should happen when a player with his preparation, i.e none, pitches up on the back of zip. This is Federer, remember. Buoyed by a sudden attack of ‘what the hells’ Federer came out swinging like it was 2004, the year he won the first of his five titles here.
In the blink of an hawkeye the score was five-all. Nishikori held on to take the set but it would be Federer progressing to the quarters, the semis and ultimately to the final, where in his 100th Australian Open contest he met his greatest rival Rafael Nadal.
On the Saturday preceding this event the media attended 13 press conferences. On Sunday there was just one. The decks were swept clean for Federer. The same brand focus was in play after his first round win against ex-convenient Brit, Aljaz Bedene. Federer was given the Hollywood treatment via the auspices of Will Ferrell, who in a faux on-court interview asked him if he were a vampire such are his eternal qualities.
Of course Federer justifies the fanfare. He arrived in Melbourne 12 months ago having not hit a ball for five months to allow a knee - on which he had surgery the previous February - to heal. After three straightforward wins in which he dropped only one set Federer found himself 5-0 down in the first set of his fourth round tie against Kei Nishikori.
This at least met with conventional ideas of what should happen when a player with his preparation, i.e none, pitches up on the back of zip. This is Federer, remember. Buoyed by a sudden attack of ‘what the hells’ Federer came out swinging like it was 2004, the year he won the first of his five titles here.
In the blink of an hawkeye the score was five-all. Nishikori held on to take the set but it would be Federer progressing to the quarters, the semis and ultimately to the final, where in his 100th Australian Open contest he met his greatest rival Rafael Nadal.